Travelling around Mali in the heat, for the first time I personally experienced a lack of drinking water. Being a spoiled westerner, I was carrying my precious treasure - some bottles of mineral water - because they would protect me against dangerous bacteria. No one I met had ever bought a single bottle of mineral water. They have no option but to drink the water from open wells or rivers.

In the dry season, people run out of water completely. The shallow, traditional well near the family house dries up. Then they use a deeper well that has been built and fortified by the community. A single well is used by over 100 families, whose lives depend on it. The only way they can get to the water is via a rope and five-litre leather baskets. But the well is open, meaning the water unsafe to drink. There is no other choice.

The women I met used the water from the family well (if they had one) for washing, and walked to the deeper village well for water for drinking and cooking. Even apart from the distances and the queues - which can take up to 10 hours - fetching water remains a formidable task all year round. Pulling water from a well for a family of seven demands a huge amount of energy, and some of the smooth, polished grooves in the wood around the well are a finger deep.

Life in Africa is tough - but for African women, it is even tougher, and I could see the suffering in their faces. Even little girls carry small pots of water in preparation for what will become part of their daily life.

The UN's Millennium Goal is unheard of in the remote villages I visited in Mali. We need to raise awareness about water, especially in the rich west, where water scarcity is not yet a problem and where we use it in a terribly wasteful way. Water is a key issue for all human beings.

· Born in Bujumbura, Burundi, Dieter Telemans (Belgian) has worked extensively in Africa since he became a photographer in 1995. His photographs have been published and exhibited across Europe. His reportage on the Aral sea in Uzbekistan in 2000 introduced him to the power and politics of the global water issue, on which he is building a vast and captivating body of work.